This 1950s color film is half video and half cartoon animation about enriching farm land through third-dimension farming, defined here as breaking up the hard pan using a Caterpillar sub-tiller and attachments. It is sponsored by the Caterpillar Tractor Company. An animator serves as the narrator, who spends time looking at the camera talking. It opens with a farm lane leading to a barn. Cattle graze and a large flock of sheep create dust as they go down a hill (:44-1:07). The animator talks and draws a buggy, hay stack, and a hayseed farmer. He creates a new picture with a 1950s car and handsome farmer (1:57-2:25). He draws the perfect cartoon farm, followed by destruction of that farm due to poor soil conditions (2:50-3:40). The cause is what’s called either the hard pan, plow pan, or plow sole (3:52-4:13). To create that troubled layer under the topsoil, the film shows a colonial farmer spreading seed by hand. The seeds roots go deep because there is no hard pan (4:39-5:38). When it rained, the water seeped deep (6:15-6:30). Progress happens. Men build an outhouse, house, and barn. The farmer plows the same land over and over, causing the smaller particles to compact at plow depth, creating a hard layer that was reinforced with each plowing (6:45-8:03). Animals also contributed. A herd of sheep, cows, pigs, and chickens walk over the ground, compacting it. The overall result is a thick almost cement-like layer under the topsoil of the farm (8:04-8:45). The effect on plants is that the roots hit the pan, as do worms. The roots grow laterally and fight with each other for room (9:00-10:00). The topsoil is affected as it tries to draw moisture from below, which is blocked by the hard pan. It dris out and blows away. Even when it rains, the hard pan blocks deep absorption and puddles form on top. If there’s a slope, the topsoil runs off. Terrace farming doesn’t prevent this due to the hard pan (10:18-11:25). The answer is to break up the hard pan into smaller chunks using sub-tillage, which is three-dimensional farming. Instead of farming by length and width, add depth. Worms can get through, and so can roots and water (13:04-14:19). The film shifts to actual footage of Caterpillar track-type tractors in use. A subsoiler attachment can be set to penetrate different depths. The animation shows it working underground, breaking up the hard pan (14:37-15:20). Shown in live action are a subsoiler with a sweep, a heavy-duty chiseler, and a spring-shank cultivator (15:21-16:15). A cartoon animation is shown of the Caterpillar tractor breaking up the hard pan in different types of soil (16:25-17:12). The narrator summarizes the benefits of sub-tilling. The animated worm emerges from the soil, smiles, and winks (18:35-18:50).
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
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